Machine to machine (M2M) technology refers generally to the ability of machines, devices, and assets, particularly those that are distributed or remote, to exchange information with people and/or with a corporate management system. Although a precise definition of M2M is difficult to formulate, M2M generally encompasses the use of telemetry via networks including, but not limited to, public wireless networks.
Historically, telemetry systems were limited to applications for conglomerates and other well financed organizations. Large oil and gas companies and electric utilities, through the use of extensive customer built dedicated data networks, were among the first private organizations to use telemetry widely. More recently, however, the cost of access to public wireless data networks has been dropping while the capabilities of these networks has been increasing thus making M2M concepts feasible for a much larger audience.
The M2M systems described herein generally include remotely located machines or devices referred to as field assets. Although field assets may encompass any variety of specific types of machines (oil rigs, cellular phone system base stations, ATM machines, and weather monitors), the specific embodiments described herein are in the field of vending machines. Vending machines are unmanned, electro-mechanical devices that dispense products including consumable products such as soft drinks and snack foods in exchange for cash (e.g., coins or bills) or cashless (credit card, debit card, smart card, RFID payment). Vending machines are generally deployed as remotely located field assets by a company that manages a plurality of such devices.
Field assets such as vending machines are generally operated by a consumer or other human agent interacting with a particular field asset. Vending machines for example, dispense a product such as a soft drink or other consumable product when a consumer interacts with the vending machines by presenting a form of payment and making a product selection. Historically, however, the extent of interaction between consumers and vending machines has been extremely limited and strictly functional. As an example, the type, amount, and format of information that vending machines have traditionally provided to consumers is limited to information such as “Exact Change Only,” “Make Selection,” or “Make A Different Selection.” Some relatively recent vending machine models may include a rudimentary display device capable, for example, of displaying these textual message to a consumer via an LCD display.
The limited amount and type of information that traditional vending machines are able to convey to consumers is notable in contrast to the amount and sophistication of the marketing that is characteristic of many products sold in vending machines. Consumers are presented with all manner of marketing and promotional material from the distributors of soft drinks, snack foods, and other products consumers may associate with vending machines. Television commercials, TV and movie tie-ins, billboards, banner ads on the Internet, magazine ads, and the like are all familiar to consumers. These advertisements and other promotional material are usually highly rich in graphic content. It would be desirable to extend the ability to present consumers with multimedia and other rich content promotional matter to the point of purchase.